


Toil & Trouble

by spartakiss



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Magic, Slice of Life, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 08:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5199266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spartakiss/pseuds/spartakiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU.  Ai is your everyday quaint, urban witch.  Rin is the childhood friend--and Ai's first crush--who has suddenly appeared on his doorstep, asking Ai to make him a love potion.  For someone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toil & Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> A short WIP. I'll try to update weekly for you brave WIP readers out there.
> 
> It's a simple story, really. Very chill and kind of experimental. I deeply apologize for how American it is, like geez. I am embarrassed. Thanks for suspending your disbelief and I hope you enjoy your read~

Rin appears on Ai’s doorstep and he’s a wreck.  Maybe Ai has had daydreams like this, them reuniting, but the actual tears in Rin’s eyes leave Ai flustered and red-faced.  What do you say to your best friend’s tears?

Rin grips Ai’s shoulders.

“I need a love potion.”

Ai’s heart crumbles.

 

X

 

Ai’s house is like any witch’s house: homey!  The inside is dark, but there’s always a greenish fire in the fireplace, casting its warm haze of light and stuffy comfort.  Ai’s bookshelves are covered in the requisite paraphernalia—bottled specimens, black cooking ware, vials, snakeskins, driftwood, a stuffed raven from his last birthday…  He and Rin sit at the squat table in the center of the room, with some tea and sugar that serves itself.

Ai frowns.  “Love potions are very rare and tricky…” he says slowly.  “Are you sure you love this person that much?”

Rin, with all his characteristic forcefulness, says “Yes.”

The glint in his eye is undeniable.  Ai purses his lips and stirs his tea absently.  (The tea would all too happily stir itself, but sometimes you just need to hold a spoon.)

“I’ll need to find the right ingredients…”

“I’ll help you!  Whatever it takes.”

Ai’s expression continues to be uncertain.  It’s been a long time.  Ai has grown marginally taller, his capelet is the deep purple of professionally trained witches rather than the more pastel colors of his childhood, and he buys his own groceries and lives in his own lair like an adult does.  Some things don’t change, however, such as the dark mole Ai’s always hated near the corner of his eye, a beauty tear drop but also his Witch’s Mark which cannot feel the pain of a pin.  Also his hair is basically the same.  Ai has never been stylish.

Rin has grown too since their childhood as neighbor kids.  His teeth are sharp for one thing, which is… new, but Ai won’t ask because it’s rude to ask about a person’s sharpness.

… Rin has also grown handsome.  Ai’s tummy doesn’t know what to do with that information.

Ai sighs, and he’s a little surprised his stomach butterflies don’t come out on the exhale.

“Ok,” Ai agrees, and he’s rewarded by Rin’s immediate grin.

“You’ve saved my life, Ai.”

Ai stirs his tea.  “This must be a very special person, huh?” A nervous smile.

Rin’s smile is anything but nervous.  “Yeah.  You could say that…”

He really is in love.

Ai’s smile peters out despite himself.

“Well,” he says, putting on his game face and gulping his tea.  There’s a finality to the way he sets down his teacup as he stands, chair screeching, and bustles to one of his bookshelves.  A certain dusty old tome will be perfect for this situation…

He pulls it out from amidst friendly cobwebs (only friendly, cute spiders around here!), and returns to the table, bending at the waist to pore over it and set it beside the now cooled kettle.

Ai licks his thumb and turns pages.  “Remember this book?” he asks Rin, who’s craning his neck to see from his chair.

“The hell.  Yeah, of course.”

It’s a scrapbook.  An old family scrapbook, but right now Ai is flipping through the most recent pages.  There are crisp, colorful photographs of Ai as a child, many of them with Rin.

Ai makes a clucking sound with his tongue on the roof of his mouth and picks one photo in particular to carefully extricate.

It’s a picture of Rin at about ten, gap-toothed (he lost teeth late) with an arm hooked around Ai’s pastel shoulders.  Little Ai is obviously startled by this pose, but also beaming, holding his old wand in one hand and making a chubby-fingered peace sign with the other.  These are happy friends.

Ai of the present hands the photo to Rin, whose expression has gone sardonic but warm.

“What’s this for?” Rin asks, checking the date on the back.  Ten years ago.

“Love potions require powerful memories of the past,” Ai explains.  “Love is reciprocal.  To make the potion, you must dedicate not only your future but your past, everything that has made you yourself, to this person.  It’s a metaphorical thing.  Spells are big on metaphors…”

Ai tries to take the photo but Rin’s not done looking at it.

“You think this memory will work?” Ai asks, suddenly uncertain again.

Rin’s grin returns and he even laughs, delighted.  “Of course!”

Oh, the butterflies are in Ai’s heart now, flapping their many delicate wings…

Ai picks up his pointed hat from the chair and plops it onto his head with ceremony.

“Well then.  Next we’ll need some eye of newt.”

 

X

 

The witches market is bustling.  Some places are always bustling.  The witches market is basically like the farmer’s market—outside with collapsible tables in a church parking lot—except with pointier hats and more black cats running around.  It is open daily until noon, and today Rin and Ai are just in time.

Ai’s favorite table sells fair trade potion ingredients and also zucchini bread.  The tall, bespectacled witch towering over the display of mason jars and Tupperware beams to see Ai’s face.

“Welcome, Ai-chan-san!”

Rin gives him a weird look, but Ai smiles back over his wicker basket (best for witchly groceries).

“Hello, Rei-san!  How are you today?”

Rei pushes up his glasses with a rather histrionic finger, smiling boldly.  “Business is booming!” he declares.  “I think everyone liked the graphics on my last email…”

“No, they just like my bread!”  A small blond appears, an adult but still wearing the lavender capelet of a witch in training.  Some have more trouble with their magic studies than others…  But this is Nagisa, whose smiles are always bright.  “How can we help you, Ai-chan?”

Ai inspects his grocery list, written on the back of an old receipt.

“Some bits and pieces… But mostly, I wanted to ask if you had any newts.”

Rei frowns deeply and Nagisa immediately begins sifting through Tupperware.

“Um… We have a lot of toads…” Nagisa says.

“No newts!” Rei bursts out.  “I knew we should have gotten newts…”

“Ah, well, you were busy with the email graphics.”  Nagisa is all teasing smiles, but Rei looks like he’s been shot through the heart with a bazooka.

Meanwhile Rin looks like he can’t quite handle these people.

“Um, that’s alright!” Ai says quickly.  “I’ll just get my own newts…”

Rei puts both hands firmly on the table.  “Ai-chan-san, in apology let me write you directions to the place where we get the best wild newts.”

“Oh no, that’s quite alright--!” Ai starts, but Nagisa has already produced a piece of paper from nowhere and Rei is eagerly writing on it with his wand and some magic.

Rin rubs his forehead.  Witches can often be overwhelming for normal people.

“Newts, eh?” Nagisa asks conspiratorially.  “What part do you need?  Tails?  Spleen?”

“Eye of newt,” says Ai.

Rei immediately stops mid-writing to stare up at Ai in unison with Nagisa.

“Those types of spells…” Rei says.  “You’re not doing anything dangerous are you?”

“Oh no, just a love potion.”

They’re still staring.

“Take some zucchini bread.”  Nagisa practically shoves a loaf at Ai, but Ai pulls his basket back just in time.  “Come on!  You’ll need your strength for a potion that complicated.”

“I’ll be alright!” Ai says firmly.  He can feel Rin’s eyes on the back of his neck all of a sudden.

Rei pushes up his glasses again and hands over his piece of paper, containing neat instructions.

“Be careful,” he says.  “We always love to see your face here.”  Nagisa nods sagely.

Ai smiles very, very politely and steers Rin away.  His witch friends can get very energetic sometimes.

Amidst the crowds, Rin is uncharacteristically quiet a moment, his hands deep in his pockets as Ai flippantly examines some toadstools.

Then Rin says, “Ai… I’m not getting you into trouble am I?”

Ai looks up from the mushrooms.  “With the love potion?  No… They’re not forbidden, just very difficult.”

“And that’s not a burden on you?”

Ai hands the merchant some pieces of silver in exchange for the mushrooms, placing them carefully in his basket.

“Hmm… Tell me about this person you love, Rin-senpai,” Ai changes the subject.

It works and Rin laughs.  “I don’t think I’ve been your senpai for awhile…” But he gets thoughtful as they continue to the next table.

“He’s beautiful,” Rin says quietly.  “Not just his face or anything, but…  I don’t know.  He’s a very shining person.  It’s like I can’t even look at him without being affected.”

“Mm,” says Ai.  He remembers a time when he idolized Rin, that special older next-door neighbor.  It had gotten softer over time, sweeter.

Yet isn’t Ai watching Rin out of the corner of his eye even now, as if looking straight at his face would be too much?

Rin scrubs the back of his neck, embarrassed but he trusts Ai still, even after all this time, so he continues.

“Haruka Nanase.  He went to my high school.”

Higher education had been when Rin moved out of Ai’s neighborhood.  That was the large chunk of Rin’s life that Ai knew nothing about.

“I thought he was a witch at first,” Rin continues.  “Kinda had that look.  He doesn’t wear a capelet or hat or anything…  He’s like me.  Ordinary.”  Rin puffs a half-laugh out of his nose.  “Well… Not quite ordinary.”

“Is he handsome?”

“Oh definitely.”

“Nice?”

“Hm.  He doesn’t like people much.  I don’t always understand him.  But he’s passionate about things.  He makes me want to be a better person.”

“That does sound like a shining person…”

“Hey Ai…” Rin’s face grows serious.  “Thanks.  You’re really saving me here.  It’s been too long.”

“Too long,” Ai repeats.  He’s not entirely sure why he repeats it.  Conversation fodder.  Then he blurts out, “I missed you, Rin.”

Something flashes across Rin’s face at this, at the first time an adult Ai has called him something other than senpai, but then it gets eaten up in another grin before Ai can decipher it.

“I missed you too,” Rin says easily.  Truthfully.

Ai can’t contain an enormous smile.

“I’ve got everything I can get here,” Ai says.  “Now it’s just a matter of that newt’s eye…”

“But first, I’m hungry,” says Rin.  He flops an arm across Ai’s shoulders and begins to steer him away from the crowd.  “Let’s get some lunch.  Let’s catch up.”

 

X

 

This is an interlude.  This is how Ai and Rin first met:

A little boy with red hair and scraped knees approached another boy at the bus stop.  It was the beginnings of fall, the first day of school, but the red-haired boy refused to wear anything but shorts, so he had a bulky, marshmallowy yellow jacket on above his shorts.

The other boy had gray hair and blue eyes and a lavender cap and cape.  His pants had suspenders.  He was very old-fashioned for a child.

“Oi, witch boy,” said Rin.  “You have paste in your hair.”

Ai was already turning red and shuffling awkwardly just to have a stranger here standing with him, let alone a conversation.  He was new to the neighborhood and shy.

“Um.  It’s not paste!  It’s beeswax…”

Sure enough, a clump of Ai’s bangs were stuck together and hanging over his face like a solid thing.  “I was trying to do a new spell… Um.  I had to run for the bus stop, so I couldn’t fix it…”  Tears of shame misted in his eyes and he tried not to let his mouth wobble.  Truthfully, he was very embarrassed to go to a new school like this.

“Won’t your mom get mad when she sees you?” Rin asked.

“Um.”  Ai didn’t live with his mother.  His parents were divorced.  “Well—“

“You don’t have a mom?” Rin asked immediately.

“Uh!” said Ai, startled.

“That’s ok.  I don’t have a dad.”  He said it so simply.

They waited for a few moments for the bus.  Then Rin got fed up.  He sighed theatrically and heaved off his backpack to the street, unzipping it and sifting for his pencil case.  He unzipped that as well and produced a pair of blue safety scissors.

Ai side-eyed him warily.

“Well, come on then,” said Rin, approaching and clipping the scissors in the air.  Chip chip.  “Let’s cut off the bee paste.”

Ai was not good at saying no to people.  He found himself looking around in vain for an adult.

Rin was soon at his side.  Chip chip.  “Trust me,” he said.  “It’ll look better.”  He smiled then and Ai’s concerned expression grew more concerned.

… But Ai really didn’t want to have beeswax in his hair on his first day.  He gripped the straps of his backpack tightly and turned to face Rin in acquiescence.

The little pink tip of Rin’s tongue peeked through his lips as he concentrated, gently taking the solidified hair into his palm.  It was weird for Ai to have another boy’s hand at his face, the backs of Rin’s knuckles brushing Ai’s heated forehead.  This closeness somewhat distracted Ai from the scissors approaching his face.  Rin’s eyes were pretty, his eyelashes long.  He had an intense determination to be gentle.  Ai could see it in the knit of his eyebrows.

It wasn’t as easy as just snipping the hair because the scissors were dull; it required a bit of Rin turning his wrist.  But the clump of hair did come off.  It fell to the street between them, drifting down.

Rin whooped excitedly as he pulled the scissors away, still so gentle despite his enthusiasm.

“You look much better!” Rin exclaimed and Ai found himself blushing for a different reason.

The bus was approaching down the street.  Rin got his backpack back in order and slapped Ai’s shoulder happily.

“I’m Rin Matsuoka,” he said.

“Um,” said Ai, who found himself unable to look away from Rin.  “…Aiichirou Nitori.”

“What grade are you in?”

“Third.”

Rin grinned hugely, with one sharp canine.  “Guess I’m your senpai then!”

The bus arrived and Rin let Ai board first, a comforting hand on the hand of Ai’s backpack.  Ai’s bangs were uneven but he felt golden all day.

 

X

 

Presently, Ai has his feet on Rin’s dashboard and a crumpled up McDonald’s bag in his lap, filled with their empty, cheese-encrusted burger wrappers and one lone, burnt fry.  Rin is driving them via Rei’s instructions to the allegedly choice newt-hunting grounds.

“This looks like a place people would pick up a hitchhiker that murders them,” Rin says.  He isn’t wrong.  They’re on a long stretch of highway—the slow, 40mph, winding sort of country highway—through flat, yellow-brown land.  Rei has terribly neat handwriting however and Ai is sure they’ve followed the directions precisely.

Sure enough, they turn a corner and find a good sized pond, good sized but still hardly big enough to call a lake.  This is it.  Rin pulls over to the side of the road and parks amidst the tall grasses.  A single scraggly pioneer of a tree casts its insufficient shade on the scene.

They exit, doors thunking, then stomp stomp squelch and the whisper of grass against their pants, until they have carefully found dryish patches at the water’s edge.  There’s a stale, muddy smell.  Something, probably a frog, hops into the water, causing ripples and waterbugs to scatter.

Ai rolls up his sleeves.

“What are newts?” Rin asks.  “Lizard things?”

“Amphibians,” Ai says.  “They’re squiggly.  Squiggly things are excellent for magic.”

He pulls his wand from his belt and sticks the wooden point into the very edge of the water.

“Alakazam!”

With a sort of splort sound, water erupts into the air as if Ai’s wand had been a stick of dynamite, sending algae and small creatures—including some yellowish newts—flying into the surrounding grass.  Rin and Ai both throw up their arms to protect their faces from the spray.

“Oi!  Warn me next time!”

“Sorry!  It wasn’t meant to be so explosive…  Quick, catch them!”

The squirmy yellow newts are dazed and confused but still beginning to squiggle their way back to the pond.  Rin pounces on one, hands grasping, and it squirms between his fingers so he’s caught immediately in a game of dropping it and catching it again, dropping and catching.  His expression is very… honest.  “Ugh!”

Ai has a better strategy, undoing the silver clasps of his capelet and taking it off—a perfect net.  He scoops up three newts along with some mud.

“Quick, hand it over!”  Ai says, offering his cape to Rin, but that’s the exact moment Rin’s newt flings itself again from his hands.

It lands directly on Ai’s face.

With a shriek, Ai stumbles backward, his foot sinking and slipping into mud--!  He’s losing his balance--!  Rin lurches forward, grabbing the front of his shirt--!

Ai goes butt first into the pond and Rin comes tumbling after him.

A moment later, Ai is very aware of the water soaking through his pants and the abundance of mud smell in his nostrils.  His hat is capsized and submerged beside him.

And Rin is on top of him, arms framing Ai’s waist.  His nose is close to Ai’s nose.  Rin’s eyelashes are still very pretty, especially with his red hair hanging that way, framing his face and almost tickling Ai’s chin.

Rin rears back angrily to his knees, making a face of utter disgust, and for a moment Ai’s heart hurts.  But Rin’s disgusted by the pond water.  Of course.

“I can’t believe--!”  Rin spits, but then he looks at Ai again and laughs, a little bitterly.  He reaches for Ai’s forehead.

He has no scissors, of course, but Ai can’t help but remember.

Rin removes his wayward newt from Ai’s hair.

“Well, we have one,” he snorts, holding the squirmy thing by its tail.

Ai’s capelet has fallen and released its captures.  When Ai reaches for his hat, however, he finds a surprise.

A cluster of newts are swimming and squirming in the murky water filling Ai’s hat.

Ai laughs.  Rin rolls his eyes.

 

X

 

They sit for a long time out in the tall grasses drying off and attempting to wipe the mud off their clothes in the grass.  Rin is finicky about the cleanliness of his car.  But they both laugh as Ai scrubs his muddy pants bottom on the tree, and the newts contentedly roam about Ai’s hat, unaware of their fate.

It is terribly nice to be with Rin again.

When they finally get back in the car, evening is swiftly approaching.  Ai imagines how this pond will look when the stars come out, so far from other people and their competing lights.  Thousands upon thousands of stars over this secret, muddy place.

But the stars aren’t out yet, and Rin is already easing them onto the highway, headlights on preemptively.  Sometimes in life you narrowly miss the beautiful scene.


End file.
